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CHAPTER TWELVE; meaningful ink
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ACE LOOKED UP WITH A GRIN at Inej and Nina, her foot lodged in between a burly woman's shoulder blades, her hands locking her arms in an unforgiving grip. The woman whimpered when Ace accidentally moved her arm a bit to the right, to the point it nearly left its socket.
"I love prison," said Ace. "They always think just because I'm incredibly beautiful I can't kill them."
The woman grunted from the ground, "Let me go."
"You know, they made me take off the rouge on my lips," Ace said with a frown, running her thumb across her bottom lip, usually coated by a crimson layer. She turned to the woman, "Perhaps I'll use your blood as a replacement," she said sweetly and the woman let out a sob.
"Bela," Nina said through a forced smile, "Tone down the gore."
"Let her go, she got the message," added Inej and the woman nodded frantically.
"Let me go," she echoed.
Ace clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "Manners."
The woman let out another whimper when Ace dug her heel into her spine, "Please!"
Ace stepped off the woman, letting her arm go, and without another second to waste the woman scampered off to the other end of the cell. When Ace looked to the other prisoners they averted their gaze. Nina rolled her eyes and Inej sighed.
"You love prisons, huh?" Nina asked with eyes narrowed as she sat down on the bench, putting her leg up on the surface, her hand hovering above her shin as she searched for the skin she'd have to pry open to retrieve the little pellet she and Jesper had hidden.
"I love escaping them most," replied Ace. "When I was younger they used to put me in a holding cell alone in Ketterdam, I was too young to be put with the men and women. When I was first put in with them, Kaz was the one who told me to take out the strongest, or boldest in the room, gain respect, and they'd leave me alone."
"Did he also tell you blood made for a fine lip color?" asked Nina, the grimace on her face either from the fact her skin was opening at the seams she left before they'd gotten on the wagon or the gory image she created.
Ace rolled her eyes grabbed a cup of water Inej passed her and drenched her shirt in it. "No. But it does have a nice color."
Inej let out a laugh just as Nina took the pellet out from her shin, the size of a raisin and slick with the girl's blood. "I can't believe you're making me laugh in a prison," said the Suli girl with a shake of her head as Nina too drenched her shirt.
